Natal snoek biting off Durban

North

Ski boat anglers had a bit of a disappointing run over the last week, with very few reports throughout the coast. The anglers up north at Cape Vidal saw the majority of the action with Natal snoek, couta and some nice sized yellowfin tuna. There were also a few good sailfish to write home about. The fish reported have been caught mainly on live baits fished around bait shoals and on bait marks with the use of either maasbanker or shad as bait. Larger shad have accounted for the bulk of couta catches over the last week as well as a few sailfish which took couta traces. Zinkwazi is still going well and has seen better couta being landed. Live baits and Kingfisher Rattlers have done well for these fish and have also accounted for a variety of other species as by-catch. Tuna being the bulk of the catch over the last week, along with the odd sailfish and even a dorado or two in the deeper water. The Imperial Nissan Zululand Couta Classic was held over the weekend of 25 and 26 April 2015. They had a total of 142 anglers fishing from 43 boats and three jetskis that participated in the competition. The fishing was generally tough due to the strong wind that prevailed during the competition weekend. Nevertheless a great time was had by all. The winning fish was caught by Ronel Hully (lady angler) with a couta of 33.2 kg (R30 000 cash + R 1 701 in prizes). Second place went to Andre Joubert (R10 000 cash + R 2 701 in prizes). The former Springbok rugby player caught a couta of 28.1kg. 

Central

Closer to Durban, anglers fishing on the Barge managed to land some good tuna, anglers fishing at Umhlanga on Backbone managed to pick off a few Natal snoek and at Umdloti the couta came out to play towards the end of the week. These were caught on dead mackerel trawled behind skis. With conditions looking good this week, we should be expecting a whole lot of action in the Umdloti area as well. Durban saw a number of anglers having a go at the snoek which have been plentiful of late, and found themselves hooking into a number of fish between 2 and 4kgs on spoons and on fillet traces off Blue Lagoon and Hyper By The Sea. This was the case for the majority of the week and left the weekend anglers something to look forward to. The weekend proved less productive but still managed to swing a few fish between 3 and 7kg in the afternoon sessions. A few of these fish were landed on Maria Blues Code stick baits and others on sardine fillet on small ice blue dusters. A faster retrieve was what the fish were after.

South

The Bluff produced a few couta and a wahoo earlier on in the week, and anglers fishing deeper managed the odd sailfish. Further south, very few gamefish were seen, apart from yellowfin tuna off Aliwal Shoal and around Shelly Beach. Bottom fishing has not only been good off Durban, but also off areas such as Umkomaas and Kelso.

Reminder - Quattro King of the Sea at Pumula on 23 and 24 May 2015.

You can contact [email protected] to enter the Pumula fishing event.

(File Photo: FreeSpool)

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